USA > Ohio > Auglaize County > History of western Ohio and Auglaize County, with illustrations and biographical sketches of pioneers and prominent public men > Part 14
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The powers conferred upon Governor Harrison were about the same as were conferred upon Governor St. Clair. Governor Harrison, however, exercised his authority with such judgment and skill that he avoided the censure that fell upon the head of St. Clair. His authority was extensive and without much limi- tation. The people had no voice in the management of their affairs. The duty of organizing all the civil institutions belonged to the governor. With the advice of the judges, he was em-
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powered by Congress to adopt and publish the necessary civil and criminal laws. He was charged with the appointment of magistrates and other civil officers, also, all military officers below the rank of general. The duty of dividing the territory into counties and townships was also assigned to the executive, and being ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs, he was com- pelled to keep up a laborious and extensive correspondence with the general government.
On the 3rd of February, 1803, President Jefferson sent a message to the Senate of the United States, in the following words :
"I nominate William Henry Harrison, of Indiana, to be a commissioner to enter into any treaty or treaties which may be necessary, with any Indian tribes northwest of the Ohio, and within the territory of the United States, on the subject of boundary or lands.
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
That Governor Harrison should have been four times ap- pointed to this office, - first by Adams, twice by Jefferson, and finally by Madison, is sufficient evidence that he possessed the wisdom, discretion, and integrity necessary for the performance of such high duties.
Between 1802 and 1811, his duties as superintendent of In- dian affairs were difficult and of grave responsibility. The ques- tion of great contention between Governor Harrison and the In- dian tribes of Indiana Territory, dates from the time of the treaty of Fort Wayne, June 7th, 1803.
Agreeable to a promise made by sachems and war chiefs .of different tribes of Indians at Vincennes on the 7th of Septem- ber, 1802, the sachems and war chiefs of the tribes, for certain considerations, made a conveyance to the United States of their right to a large part of the Illinois country south and east of the Illinois river.
In the year following (August, 1804), a series of treaties was made by Governor Harrison, at Vincennes, by which the claims of several Indian nations to large tracts of land in In- diana and Illinois were relinquished to the United States, for due consideration. The Delawares sold their claims to a large tract between the Wabash and Ohio rivers; and the Pianke-
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shaws gave up their title to lands granted by the Kaskaskia In- dians the preceding year.
In an interview with Governor Harrison, at Vincennes in 1804, Tecumseh is represented as saying: "We have no inten- tion of making war against the whites; but we do desire to unite all the tribes, in the resolve to allow no more of our lands
GENERAL HARRISON'S COUNCIL WITH TECUMSEH.
to be disposed of without the consent of all. Those chiefs who have recently ceded to the Americans vast regions of our hunt- ing grounds, which did not belong to them, all deserve to be put to death. We can not accept that treaty. It has no foun- dation in justice. The Indians, though divided into many tribes, are one people, and their interests are one." These statements were followed by a very impassioned recital of the wrongs which had been inflicted upon the Indians by the white man. These accusations, accompanied by very vehement gestures, made the
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governor angry. During the time of the delivery of Tecum- seh's address, the governor's attention was directed to the forty Indians on hearing General Gibson say to Lieutenant Jennings : "Those fellows mean mischief: you had better bring up the guard." At that moment the followers of Tecumseh seized their tomahawks and sprang to their feet, with their eyes turned upon the governor. "For a few moments there was great danger of an awful scene of carnage, in which probably every Indian would have been slain. Fortunately the first blow was not struck. The governor, much displeased with the haughty bearing of the chieftain dismissed the council, saying to Tecumseh: "I shall have no further communication with you. You are a bad man .. You may now go. But you must immediately leave the village." Other interviews followed in which nothing was accomplished. They were terminated suddenly by an indiscreet statement of Harrison, "that the right of the United States would be sup- ported by the sword, if need be." "So be it," was the stern reply of the haughty chieftain, and soon afterward drifted down the rivers in his birch-bark canoe to visit the tribes in the southwest and to persuade them to join in a great uprising against the encroachments of the white man.
When he went south he left the affairs of the north in the hands of his brother, the one-eyed Prophet, who was a medicine man and had great influence over the tribes on account of sor- ceries and incantations he successfully practiced. On leaving, Tecumseh charged his brother to preserve friendly relations with the whites and not on any account to allow an outbreak of hos- tilities during his absence, but to strengthen their cause by in- ducing other tribes to unite with them in the effort to drive the white people from the northwst territory.
He left feeling confident that his instruction would be fol- lowed. But a number of white people having been murdered by the Indians, and reports having reached Governor Harrison of an uprising of many of the tribes led by the Prophet, and rumors of a proposed massacre at Vincennes, he marched with a force of about eight hundred men to the mouth of Tippecanoe river, where the Prophet's town was located. Before making an at- tack Governor Harrison sent messengers to the Prophet, offering him an opportunity of entering into a treaty of peace. In viola-
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tion of the laws of warfare the Indians attempted to capture the messengers.
A night attack was made by the Indians at four o'clock A. M. on the 7th of November. The attack was so sudden and un- expected that it threw the army into confusion, but by the skill- ful exertions of the officers of the American forces order was restored before daylight. As soon as it became light enough to see distinctly, a severe engagement ensued, in which the Indians were defeated and driven from the Prophet's town. This battle crippled the confederacy before it was fully prepared for war. When the great chief returned from the south and found his hopes ruined by this untimely battle, his disappointment and rage were so great that he threatened to kill the Prophet, and never indeed forgave him.
"In the following June, he sought an interview with the In- dian agent at Fort Wayne; disavowed any intention of making war on the United States, and reproached Governor Harrison for having marched against his people during his absence. The agent replied to this in fitting terms, to which Tecumseh listened with frigid indifference, and after making a few general remarks, with a haughty air, left the council house, and departed for Fort Mal- den, in Upper Canada, where he joined the British standard."
During the latter part of the year 1811 and the early part of the year following, the Indians, instigated by British agents, con- tinued their depredations on the northwestern frontiers, notwith- standing their signal defeat at Tippecanoe. This led the governors of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana to take measures to place their states and territories in a state of defense, and the raising of vol- unteers for border operations. On the 18th of June, 1812, a new aspect was given to the affairs of the West by the declaration of war, made by the United States against Great Britain.
The causes of the war, as set forth in Madison's proclama- tion, were :
I. Tampering with the Indians, and urging them to attack our citizens on the frontier.
2. Interfering with our trade by the Orders in Council.
3. Putting cruisers off our ports to stop and search our ves-
sels.
4. Impressing our sailors, of whom more than six thou- sand were in the British service.
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Early in the spring of 1812, Governor Hull, of Michigan, re- . ceived orders from the War Department to proceed to Ohio to recruit and organize an army, to be held in readiness to invade Canada in the event of war with England. The movement con- templated the taking possession of Detroit, crossing the Detroit river into Canada, and a march upon Quebec. Return Jonathan Meigs was then governor of Ohio. By great exertion, he raised three regiments of volunteers for three months. These troops as- sembled at Dayton in April and May, and early in June moved to Urbana where they were joined by the 4th United States In- fantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel James Miller - veterans who fought at Tippecanoe, and who afterwards, under this gallant commander, charged the British batteries at Lundy's Lane.
By the middle of June the army numbered about twenty-five hundred men. The first regiment was commanded by Colonel Duncan McArthur; the second, by Colonel James Finley ; and the third, by Colonel Lewis Cass.
About the 15th of June General Hull took command and com- menced the march, through the unbroken forest, towards Detroit. After a toilsome march of twenty-four miles, they came to a spot, about six miles southwest of where Kenton is situated, and erected a block-house which was named Fort McArthur, in honor of Col- onel McArthur, commander of the First regiment. Making this a depot for the deposit of stores, they proceeded fifteen miles fur- ther, when they encountered the Scioto Marsh. After floundering along through mire and water for a few miles, they found a spot of solid ground, where they built another fort of logs, which was called Fort Necessity. After resting a few days, and the weather becoming more favorable, the march was continued, and in three days the army reached Blanchard's Fork at the present site of the city of Findlay. Colonel Findlay had been dispatched ahead of the main army to build a fort and stockade on Blanchard river. When General Hull and his army reached the river, to their sur- prise, they found that the fort and stockade were completed and ready for their reception. The fort and stockade were named Fort Findlay, in honor of Colonel Findlay, and were located on the north bank of Blanchard river, west of the present iron bridge.
The fort was garrisoned by a company under the command of Captain Arthur Thomas, who lived at King's Creek, three miles from Urbana. So far as known, no battles were fought at Fort
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Findlay, and garrison duty was no doubt monotonous and irk- some.
The following from Beardsley's History of Hancock County is interesting in this connection: "Colonel William Oliver, late of Cincinnati, left Fort Meigs, on the Maumee river. about eight o'clock on a dark and stormy night, during the war, in company with a Kentuckian, on an errand of importance to Fort Findlay. They had preceeded but a short distance on their perilous journey, when they unexpectedly came upon an Indian camp, around the fires of which the Indians were cooking their supplies. So near had they got to the camp, that the noise of their approach alarmed the savages, who at once sprang to their feet and ran towards them. Oliver and his companion reined their horses into the branches of a fallen tree. The horses, as if conscious of danger, as were their riders, remained perfectly quiet, and the Indians passed around the tree without discovering them. At this junc- ture, the daring messengers put spurs to their horses and dashed forward into the woods, through which they passed to the fort, where they arrived safely, but with the loss of their clothing, which had been torn from them by the brush through which they had passed - their bodies bruised and lacerated. Nor were they a moment too soon in their arrival, for the Indians, enraged at their escape, had pursued them so closely, that Oliver and his com- panion had scarcely been admitted into the fort, when their pursu- ers made their appearance on the opposite side of the river. After giving vent to their disappointment at the loss of the scalps of the pale faces, in hideous yells, they retraced their steps toward the Maumee, on the lookout for some unsuspecting but less fortunate white man."
On the 28th of June the army left Fort Findlay and by slow marches reached the Maumee river at the point where Perrysburg is situated. The river was crossed at the foot of the rapids, and the army continued its march to Detroit, which point was reached on the 5th of July. On the 12th of July Hull crossed the Detroit river to reconnoiter the strength of the enemy there, and to col- lect provisions. He soon saw, as he thought, indications that the British, having gained the alliance of nearly all of the warriors of the northwestern tribes, were vastly superior to him in force. He therefore recrossed the river on August 7th and took shelter be- neath the walls of his fortress at Detroit.
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Caleb Atwater, in his History of Ohio, gives the following account of what ensued: "When the order to recross the river was given it was so unexpected by the army that it fell upon it like a thunderbolt. All confidence in the commander-in-chief was lost, in an instant, and the men with difficulty obeyed their own officers. On the 14th, General Brock, the British command-in-chief, took a position opposite Detroit, and began to fortify it by erecting bat- teries. On the next day he summoned Hull to surrender, which he utterly refused to do, in reply. Brock opened his batteries and threw bombs during the night, for the purpose of diverting Hull's attention from an attempt that was being made to land troops at Springwells. When the day dawned, to the surprise and chagrin of Hull and his officers, it was discovered that the enemy had crossed the river in the night. Having thus landed in safety, and without opposition, the British forces at 10 o'clock A. M. marched in columns twelve deep to attack the American garrison. The fort, or as our soldiers used to call it, 'the sheep pen,' was so situated, that the enemy could approach within two hundred yards of it be- fore the guns of the garrison could injure them. A detachment of the American force, however, was sent out, and judiciously posted to prevent the advance of the enemy. But at the very mo- ment, when every American in the army except its commander was ready and anxious to begin the mortal combat, with an enemy of inferior numbers, consisting mostly of either raw militia, or of Indians, what were the emotions of our army, when they were ordered into the fort, and to lay down their arms. They reluc- tantly obeyed, and a white flag was raised on the fort."
"Without shedding a drop of blood, without firing a single gun, the fort, with all its cannon, taken with Burgoyne at Sara- toga from the British, with a vast amount of powder, lead, cannon- balls and all the munitions of war - all were surrendered, un- conditionally surrendered to the enemy. The enemy himself must have doubted his own senses on that occasion. Let us see ; twenty- five hundred men with all their arms; twenty-five pieces of iron cannon, and eight brass ones ; forty barrels of powder - all were surrendered without firing a gun, to about one thousand militia and a few Indians."
Two years afterward, Hull was tried by court-martial, for treason and cowardice. He was acquitted of treason, but was con- victed of cowardice, and was sentenced to be shot. President Mad-
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ison, however, in consideration of his age and military services in the revolutionary war, remitted the sentence.
However brave he may have been personally, he was, as a commander, a coward; and moreover, he was influenced, con- fessedly, by his fears as a father, lest his daughter and her chil- dren should fall into the hands of the Indians.
"In truth, his faculties seemed to have been paralyzed by fear ; fear that he should fail; fear that his troops would be unfair to him; fear that the savages would spare no one, if opposed with vigor ; fear of some undefined and horrid evil impending. McAfee accuses him of intemperance, but no effort was made on his trial to prove this, and we have no reason to think it a true charge; but his conduct was like that of a drunken man, without sense or spirit."
The foregoing history of Hull's deportment at Detroit, quoted from the histories of the campaign by Atwater and McAfee, writ- ten three-quarters of a century ago, is not wholly reliable. Time and a careful investigation of the facts and circumstances that led to the surrender, go a great way towards disproving many of the charges that were heaped upon him. As an example of the change of opinion that has taken place within the last few years, the fol- lowing from James Freeman Clark's Campaign of 1812 is pre- sented : "General Hull had been in many battles of the Revolu- tion. He led a column of Wayne's troops at the taking of Stony Point, and for his conduct in that action received the thanks of Washington, and promotion in the service. He was in the midst of the battle of White Plains, and was there wounded. He was in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He fought at Ticonderoga, Bemis Heights, Saratoga, Monmouth, and other places, and led regiments and batallions in most of these battles. * Is it likely, therefore, that he should have been the only man in his army disabled by fear from fighting General Brock? What, then, were his reasons as given by himself? General Hull was now in the position in which, as he stated to the administration before the war, Detroit must fall. His communications with Ohio were cut off by the Indians in the woods; his communications by the lakes were cut off by the British vessels; and he had no co-opera- tion at Niagara. If he should fight a battle, and defeat the Brit- ish army, his fate would not be less inevitable, for a victory would not re-open his communications. Beside this, his forces were
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vastly inferior to those of the enemy, his provisions were nearly exhausted, and there was no possibility of obtaining a supply from any quarter. If he were to fight, he would save his own reputa- tion, but could not save the army or territory, and he would be exposing the defenseless inhabitants of Michigan to all the horrors of Indian warfare, without a reason or an object. Under these circumstances, it would be the part of a selfish man to fight. It was the part of a brave and generous man to hazard the sacrifice of his own reputation as a soldier, and his own selfish feelings, to his duty as a governor and a man. General Hull did the last, and never regretted it for a moment. He was asked, on his death- bed, whether he still believed he had done right in the surrender of Detroit, and he replied that he did, and was thankful that he had been enabled to do so."
After the capitulation, the militia were permitted to return home on their parole of honor not to serve in the war until they were exchanged. They were landed at different points along the southern shore of Lake Erie, and made their way home as best they could.
"General Hull and the regular officers, and soldiers were re- served for the triumphal entry of the British officers, into Mon- treal and Quebec. Thither they were taken, and Hull himself, seated in an old, ragged, open carriage, was drawn through the streets of Montreal, and thus exhibited as a rare show, to the na- tives there assembled."
After General Brock's triumphal exhibit, General Hull was paroled, and retired to Philadelphia, where he died in 1825.
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CHAPTER IX.
HARRISON'S CAMPAIGN.
As the news of the surrender of Hull spread through Ohio and Kentucky, it created an excitement and alarm as great as that that followed the defeat of St. Clair. As soon as Governor Scott, of Kentucky, received the report of Hull's surrender, he invited Governor Harrison to visit Frankfort and consult with him on the defense of the northwestern frontier. As a result of the confer- ence, Harrison was appointed a major-general of three regiments that had already been enlisted for service on the frontier. On the 25th of. August he left Frankfort, escorted by Lieutenant Col- onel Martin D. Hardin, of Allen's regiment, and by riding all night, reached Cincinnati at 8 o'clock on the morning of the 27th. Upon taking command of the Kentucky regiments, he issued the following general order, which gives an idea of the kind of dis- cipline and tactics that were practiced on this campaign :
"HEADQUARTERS, August 28th, 1812.
"'The troops will continue their march in the direction of Day- ton by way of Lebanon, at an early hour to-morrow morning.
"The commandants of the several corps will at every conve- nient opportunity commence drilling their men to the perform- ance of the evolutions, contemplated by the commander-in-chief for the order of march and battle. The principal features in all these evolutions, is that of a battalion changing its direction, by swinging round on its center. This, however, is not to be done by wheeling, which by a large body in the woods, is impracticable. It is to be performed thus : the battalion being on its march in a single rank, and its center being ascertained, the front division comes to the right about, excepting the man in the rear of that division, who steps two feet to the right; at the same time the front man of the second division takes a position about six feet to the left of the man in the rear of the front division, and dresses with him in a line at right angles to the line of march. These two men acting as markers or guides for the formation of the new alignment, at the word - 'from the new alignment, march,' the men of the front file round their guide and form in succession on his right. At the same time the men of the rear division file
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up in succession to left of the guide, and dress in a line with him and the guide of the front division. This maneuver may be per- ·formed by any number of men - by company and plattoon as well as by battalion.
"WM. H. HARRISON, "Maj. Gen. Commanding."
li.A. Harijon
On the morning of the 30th of August General Harrison left Cincinnati, and overtook the regiments he was to command, about twenty miles south of Dayton, on the morning of the thirty-first. As he pasesd from rear to front he was saluted with three hearty cheers. He afterward spoke of this reception, as it was an evi- dence that they would cheerfully fight under his command. On the Ist of September the army passed through Dayton, and some time in the afternoon General Harrison was overtaken by an express, bearing a message from the War Department, informing him that
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he had been appointed brigadier general in the United States army, to command all the troops in Indiana and Illinois territories, with instructions to consult and co-operate with General Hull, and with Governor Howard, of Missouri territory. But, as the commission had been issued before the War Department had the news of the surrender of Detroit, General Harrison declined to accept the appointment, until he could hear the determination of the govern- ment, after the surrender, and the character in which he was then acting, had been reported to the War Department.
On the 3d of September the army reached Piqua, where the general received information that Fort Wayne was about to be besieged by the British and Indians. Colonel Allen's regiment and three companies from other regiments were dispatched im- mediately, with instructions to make forced marches for the relief of the garrison.
"On the evening of the 4th, General Harrison received fur- ther information that British and Indian forces had left Mal- den on the 18th of August to reinforce the besieging forces at Fort Wayne." Upon receiving this information, Colonel Adams with his regiment of seven hundred mounted men was ordered to advance as far as Shane's crossing on the St. Mary's River.
In the meantime General Harrison having received notice that General Winchester had been ordered by the War Depart- ment to take command of the troops destined to reinforce the northwestern army, he wrote to General Winchester from Piqua, asking to be relieved of his command, but upon receiving in- formation of the critical situation of Fort Wayne, he decided to retain the command until the fort should be relieved.
At an early hour on the morning of the 5th, the remainder of the troops were paraded when the general addressed them, in which he stated that "Fort Wayne was in imminent danger, and that it was absolutely necessary to make forced marches to re- lieve it. He read several articles of war, prescribing the duty of soldiers, and explained the necessity for such regulations. He then observed, that if there was any person, who would not submit to such regulations, or who was afraid to risk his life in defense of his country, he might return home, as he did not wish to have any person with him who was afraid or unwilling to discharge his duties. One man only said he wished to re- turn; and his friends having obtained leave as usual to escort
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